A jury has found the Chairman of the Kossuth County Board of Supervisors guilty of misdemeanor assault this week, following an incident with another board member back in July.
Seventy-six-year-old Roger Tjarks was convicted on the single count of assault, a simple misdemeanor, following a one-day trial on Tuesday. A criminal complaint filed on August 10th states that Tjarks pushed Supervisor Kyle Stecker, poked him in the chest and made verbal threats of wanting to physically harm the 26-year-old at the Kossuth County Courthouse around 9:30 a.m. on July 11th. The supervisors had a regular meeting that morning that started at 8 a.m. A video recording of the meeting shows that a closed session was requested around 9:20 a.m. and it was during this closed session that the alleged altercation took place. Jurors heard from witnesses for both the state and the defense, as well as an audio/video recording of the incident. The case was prosecuted by the Winnebago County Attorney’s Office due to a potential conflict of interest for the Kossuth County Attorney.
